suraj.sun writes: An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals an alarming number of Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property.

It's an investigation that Apple has apparently been trying to keep out of the public eye.

It took more than 7-months for KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy to get her hands on documents concerning Apple's iPods from the Consumer Product Safety Commission because Apple's lawyers filed exemption after exemption.

In the end, the CPSC released more than 800 pages which reveal, for the very first time, a comprehensive look that shows, on a number of occasions, iPods have suddenly burst into flames, started to smoke, and even burned their owners.

Jumping online, KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators found plenty of complaints about iPods overheating. Bloggers post photos of their charred and melted iPods. And in Japan, the government even issued a warning to consumers citing "a number of accidents in which iPod Nanos" overheated and sparked, injuring two people.

That led Clancy to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Consumer Product Safety Commission last December, asking to see all complaints related to iPods and burns or fire.

When the documents finally arrived more than seven months later, they included more than 800 pages of information, including 15 burn and fire-related incidents blamed by iPod owners on their iPods.

Of all the people interviewed for Clancy's report, including three consumer safety experts, all of them agree that the public should at least be aware of this potential problem, no matter how rare the cases might be.

Clancy asked that same question of Apple: should its customers know about this? Apple refused to comment, and refused to answer all of the other questions Clancy has been asking of the company since November.